Ricardo López (January 14, 1975 – September 12, 1996), also known as "the Björk stalker", was an American pest exterminator who attempted to murder the Icelandic singer Björk.
López was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and moved to Lawrenceville, Georgia, with his family, where he began working as an exterminator. He had poor self-esteem, was socially reclusive, and he eventually developed an obsession with Björk in 1993, though not hoping to be engaged with her; he was particularly angry over her brief relationship with the English musician Goldie due to the color of his skin. Over the course of nearly nine months in 1996, he made video diaries about her and other topics at his apartment in Hollywood, Florida. On September 12, 1996, López mailed a letter bomb rigged with sulfuric acid to Björk's residence in London, then returned home, recorded a final video diary explaining his motivations, and ended it filming his suicide by gunshot. Hollywood police found his body and the videos four days after his death; they contacted the Metropolitan Police, who intercepted the package. Björk was unharmed.
These video diaries are nearly complete, and are from original DVD-R masters held by the Hollywood Police Department. They were obtained through the Florida Public Records Law (Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes). A mere 30 minutes of irrelevant footage of Ricardo's camera aimed at his wall on September 7-8, 1996 were missing from the masters provided to me by the police department. It appears they dubbed the original Hi8 NTSC tapes to VHS, then converted them to DVD. The last day is included in full, and is not recommended for anyone under the age of 18.
Viewer discretion is advised due to hate speech, nudity, and graphic violence at the end.
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11
